Speaker: Karita KAN, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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To promote rural revitalization, the Chinese government has relaxed restrictions that have previously prevented the entry of rural land into commercial markets. The creation of rural land markets was intended to encourage investments in the countryside, modernize agriculture, and bolster non-agrarian models of growth. On the ground, however, rural land commodification has produced diverse outcomes, enriching some villagers through incorporation into land rent regimes while uprooting others from their land. Likewise, land transfer has been embraced by some as a means of income generation but criticized by others as a cover for land takings. What explains these differences in outcome and response? This presentation proposes a comparative framework for analyzing the politics, practice, and variegated impact of rural land commodification. Based on multi-sited ethnography, it presents evidence of how the different regimes of accumulation put in place by State and corporate actors produce uneven outcomes for the local communities involved. 

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Dr. Karita Kan is an associate professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She received her PhD in Politics from the University of Oxford. Her broad research interests lie in the political economy and social dynamics of China's post-socialist transition. She has published on the politics of land and property, urbanization and changing state-society relations in grassroots governance, and China's role in global development. Her work can be found in journals including Geoforum, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Journal of Rural Studies, Cities, China Journal, China Quarterly, and Journal of Contemporary China.

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